[Advances in the study of berberine and its derivatives].
Berberine is a isoquinoline alkaloid extracted from Chinese herbs such as Coptidis rhizome. In the past decade, there are more than 2 000 published papers studying the clinical application, pharmacodynamic mechanism and structure-activity relationship (SAR) of berberine and its derivatives, for treating tumor, diabetes, cardiavascellum disease, hyperlipemia, inflammation, bacterium and virus infection, cerebral ischemia trauma, mental disease, Alzheimer disease, osteoporosis, and so on. These results demonstrate that berberine has wide physiologic function and has great potential for structural modification as new drug lead. However, there is no systematic review about the study of berberine and its derivatives up to now. This paper is a systematic review of the research advances of berberine and its derevatives in clinical application, pharmacodynamic mechanisms, molecular pharmacology, absorption and metabolism, and SAR studies. The current review would provide some useful information for further study on structural modification of berberine for discovering new drug leads based on its pharmacodynamic mechanisms.
Li
Bo
B
College of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China.
Zhu
Wei-Liang
WL
Chen
Kai-Xian
KX
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy; D000818:Animals; D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D001599:Berberine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents; D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D001599:Berberine